FIRE
by AdamWest17
Summary: In the dark streets of Vale, a young thief and a Magician must change their lives, and confront their city's dark secrets. A Darker tale than my usual show of happiness (and it has a better summary!)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Shadows**

There are things in this city. They prowl the darkness, feed off suffering. Vale can't protect itself against them, and it doesn't try to. They pass unnoticed, silent, but aware of the world around them. The World can't see them, the Hunters can't stop them. They wage a war with no end, and no beginning, no cause, and no effect. They just want what's not theirs. Fear. Fear through respect.

()

The man was going to do something bad, I was sure of it. I followed him, keeping to the shadows, skin black as night. His friends were dark too, black suits, red ties. Nice weapons too, I could steal me some of those. No, concentrate, follow them. Blend with the darkness. Hmm, a dust shop, interesting, I could rob that someday…

"Do you have ANY idea, how hard it is to find a dust shop open this late?" The Man with the cane asked the shop owner.

Well, looks like _I_ won't be robbing it

"Please, just take my Lien and leave!" The old man put his hands in the air, I wish it were that easy for me, my little dagger and "sneaky tactics" make it hard for me to be that awesome.

"Calm down, we're not here for your money" The man looked to his friends "Grab the dust"

The men began extracting the dust from the shop, leaving nothing behind. What kind of a Thief doesn't take the money? This made no sense… One of the suited men walked towards the girl in the back of the shop. He raised his sword, then walked towards her. I guess he said something stupid, like "hey kid, hands in the air, you're being robbed!" because the next minute he was flying through the window and landed 5 feet from where I was cloaked in shadow.

"Shh" I whispered, as I grabbed his money.

"Ok. Get her!" The white suited man yelled. This didn't go well, this girl had a Scythe! It had a gun attached to it as well. She seemed to use the kick to fight, as I had to dodge several bullets that came at me, almost disrupting my camouflage. She knocked out all the men, which was really impressive! I mean, this kid was like, 15? Then again, I became a professional Thief at 13 so…

"You were worth every cent, truly you were" The Man with the cane was stood over one of his fallen friends, then he turned his attention to the girl "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening. And as much as I'd love to stick around, this…" He raised his cane, and a sight appeared on the end "…is where we part ways" He fired off a dust round, which the girl deflected. This was waaaaaaay above my paygrade, I wasn't going to stick around and play tag with two dangerous psychopaths. I broke from my shadowy cover and ran…

…Straight into a huntress.

()

I don't do prisons, I try to avoid them at any cost, but when someone lets you go for no reason, you've got to be suspicious. So when the officer said I was free to go, I handled it like a true professional.

"Really, Just like that?" I asked the officer

"Yep. Get out" He escorted me out of my cell to go get my things. A real officer would probably use my question as evidence, this cop was obviously paid off. I walked out of the VPD station, and saw one of the last people I expected to see. Professor Ozpin.

"Well young man, you've gotten yourself into a bit of trouble, haven't you?" The professor said condescendingly

"You… got me released from prison?" I asked "Why?"

"You are a gifted individual Mr Kuro"

"Oh God, don't call me that. My name is Fen!"

"You have said this before, I will continue to call you Mr Kuro"

"Whatever, your point is?"

"I have a school, as I'm sure you know. Two places have opened up after some people decided to leave. You could go to beacon, become a huntsman."

"And…"

"Not be arrested again" Ozpin looked at me over the edge of his glasses

"I'll think about it" I said, not completely lying

"Ok then" He turned away, before looking over his shoulder and saying "Invite Mr Jikan too won't you?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The time**

Respect, in their minds, can only be obtained through power. A disease that corrupts and blinds men of importance. They can use power to obscure the view of these people, spread chaos through the streets. All for respect. And then, fear…

()

"Roll up roll up!" I said, twirling my wand in the air "See the amazing Rowen and his fabulous tricks!"

I knew no one would stop until I showed an example of my work, so I wasted no time. I leapt down from my podium in front of a random man.

"You sir! Would you like to see me bend the laws of the universe?" the man shook his head "Shame, goodbye then, my good sir" I patted him on the shoulder as I patted his pockets, looting his wallet. Sure, I'm a crook, but how else can I get my money? I was going to do magic, great illusions, but nobody stopped to watch! Nobody would watch me conjure my lights! Nobody would let me guess what card they had by reversing time! Nobody would even stop to say "Hi". They would say they didn't have time. Time. Time waits for no man, but he assists one! Me the great Rowen Jikan! The master of time! Nobody cared what I could do.

Then, she helped me! The great master criminal! Cinder Fall! She arrived one day, and asked if I was in need of any money, she introduced me and my friend Fen to the world of pickpocketing, and I loved it! I wasn't very good, but I loved it! Fen was the opposite, his semblance made him a natural, but he didn't enjoy it. He hid it well, but you could tell he was kicking himself deep down.

()

Rowen was stood on his podium again, the most obvious thief in the world. He'd been arrested more times than anyone I'd ever heard of in our line of work. Our mutual friend Cinder has broken him out at least a dozen times.

"Oh, great Rowen, could I ascend your tower to speak with you?" I said sarcastically. He looked down at me.

"Hello there my friend, would you like a method of transportation to our headquarters?" he asked. I nodded and he jumped down from his pedestal and took off his hat, revealing his white hair, before getting into an old fashioned car. "And how was your most recent business venture?"

"Rowen, stop with the voice, I can't take you seriously" I said as I got into the car.

"Alright, fine, how'd the job go last night?" Rowen asked, pulling away down the road

"Got busted at the end, managed to keep the pay though" I held up my wallet "1000 Lien"

"Cinder will be pleased" He said, half concentrating on the road "You heard about her new accomplice?"

"No, she got someone else working for her?" I asked, new faces usually meant bad news

"Roman Torchwick. Big time crook, tons of dust robberies over the past couple of months"

"Oh yeah, I've heard of him" I said, putting my feet up on the dashboard. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad after all.

()

We arrived at the warehouse a few minutes later, thanks to my driving skills! Before we went in, Fen pulled me to the side

"Hey, Rowen. I talked to Professor Ozpin recently…"

"Why?" I asked

"Shut up and listen. He said that there were a couple of places left at Beacon, maybe we could go?" He said, avoiding my gaze

"Aren't we a year old to be accepted?" I said, Ozpin had asked me to go the year before, but I refused.

"I dunno, he said we could go." He looked at me, and raised one eyebrow "You wanna go or not?"

"Ok, we'll try it out, but we need some gear first right?" I said, after thinking for a moment.

"Yeah, maybe we could steal some materials and make some" Fen said "Let's think about that later, we gotta go talk to Cinder"

We walked inside, Fen said Hi to Emerald and Mercury as we went past, on our way to Cinder and Roman, who were stood over a table with some sort of map on it.

"Ah, there you are!" Cinder said, turning away from Roman "Did you get the job done Fen?"

"Yep" He handed over the Lien "What're you doing over there?"

"Oh, nothing" She said, blocking our view. "How did your day go Rowen?"

"I got about 500 Lien" I said. Fen was moving slowly closer to the table Cinder had been looking at earlier. "Not very good today" Fen had looked at the table and was now back near Cinder.

"Oh?" She said, unaware of Fen looking at her map.

"Not very good today" Fen had looked at the table and was now back near Cinder.

"Well, good to see you" Fen said, before walking away.

"Yeah, bye!" I said following Fen outside, and got back into the car.

"Hey kid, wait!" I rolled down the window and saw Roman Torchwick talking to Fen "I've got a job for you, which will require your, shady skills" He laughed at his own joke.

"What is it?" Fen asked

"I need, you" He poked Fens chest "To spy on Beacon Academy"

"Come again?"

"I know you were offered a place, and I know you have the skills for it" He dropped his cigar and crushed it with his cane "You'll be in the second year, right?"

"I guess" Fen said. I didn't like where this was going

"Great, go do that and I'll pay you, BIG time" Roman said. Then walked off.

Cinder was planning something big, and hadn't got me or Rowen in on it? Seriously? Then This Torchwick guy expects us to spy on all of beacon? As if. If anything, I'm going to find out what's happening. And I'm going to stop it… or get some of the loot… maybe both…

I haven't told Rowen yet, but he'll definitely be ready for revenge…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Heist**

Fear consumes all. It prowls in the darkness. Feeds off suffering. It can live inside, and outside the walls of the cities. That's what these things are. Fear, dark as night, bright as fire. Ferocious as the Grimm, quiet as ghosts…

Fen Kuro

"SHE WHAT?" Rowen was in a rage. He ran his hands through his long white hair as I recalled what the map had said. "Roman's dust robberies were _her_? And we get _none_ of the cut?"

"Basically" He was taking it worse than I'd thought

"And Roman expects _us,_ to do his dirty work…" he kicked the table in frustration. It was already dented from previous rages.

"We better go to Beacon… but maybe we could… give him false information?" I said, trying to cheer him up with my plans of revenge.

"Ok, alright" He seemed to be calming down a bit. "We still need to steal some gear…"

"We could get it from Roman, take some of the stuff he has, melt it down, and then make new weapons?" I suggested, pacing the room

"Ok, we'll do it tonight, make the weapons tomorrow" Rowen said "Go… make a plan or something"

"Yes sir" I said, saluting sarcastically. Then I got to work.

First, the weapons. For me, two new knives. Dust powered, obviously, Roman has enough to not miss them. For Rowen, a new wand, that extends into a staff. It will fire dust rounds.

Secondly, the gear. I'll get something simple. Get some good boots and reinforce some jeans. I'll keep my hooded shirt. Rowen can keep his Magician's suit, it's pretty practical actually. Plus, he never takes it off. Better get some Dust-Proof materials too.

"What is this? A shopping list?" Rowen asked as I told him my plan

"Ha-ha, very funny. If we take too much, Roman and Cinder will know. And we don't wanna get caught. Honour among thieves remember?" I stated

"Alright, get too it then" He said, sitting down

"See you later, get the forge ready" I said, walking towards the door

"Don't die" Rowen said cheerfully

"Do I ever?" I jested, before walking outside, putting up my hood, and pulling my scarf over my face. It was a dark night, clouds covering the moon. But the streetlamps could give me away. I concentrated, pushing the shadows wrapped around me further out, before beginning on my way. Anyone who looked my way would see a faint cloud of shadow zipping between alleyways. But the warehouse wasn't far, so I had to be careful about the Guards. I came to the corner and stopped abruptly.

The white fang, why were they here? This wasn't their sort of turf. The Faunus walked in front of me, and I delivered a punch to his neck, silencing him, before using a well-placed wall to knock him out.

"Goodnight" I whispered, my semblance making my voice low and harsh. I looked around the corner and saw even more white fang. Seriously? Had Cinder hired them too? The secrets in this city… I kept going, through the shadows, dodging streetlamps. Maybe I could make this easier. I grabbed another guard, knocked him out, and took his outfit. Then walked calmly into the warehouse.

"Hey! You shouldn't be in here!" A guard said.

"Oops, sorry, I'll leave" I stepped into the shadows, and made them grow towards the enemy, blinding him. I kicked him in the head then threw him into a crate. Making a bit to much noise for my liking. I quickly looted what I needed.

"You there! Stop!" More guards had arrived.

"Gimme a break" I said, my semblance again disguising my voice. I threw the sword I took from the guard at the most important looking enemy, who crumpled to the ground. I pulled out a dust pistol, and dispatched the others. Then I ran out of the building, vaulted off a bin, swung off a streetlamp, and flew through a window.

"Whew, that got bad quick" I sat down in a corner, and began piecing together my outfit. I pulled on some midnight camo jeans, and added armour plating, then did the same to my T-shirt, before swapping my old shoes for some Atlesian military boots.

"Where the hell did Roman get this from?" I wondered aloud, before leaving the building and beginning to walk back to the safe house.

"Time to build some weapons…"

()

"Room service! Did anyone order several dangerous materials?" I threw the bag down at the foot of the forge

"You get spotted?" Rowen asked, pulling out the weapons and melting them on the forge.

"A couple of guys, White Fang, looks like Cinder's keeping more from us than we thought" I said, opening the fridge and grabbing a Coke.

"Damn, you deal with them?"

"Knocked out three, at least injured five" I said in between swigs.

"Alright, I made your weapons" He pulled two moulds out of the forge. They cooled quickly, one red Knife, one Black knife. "The red one, can glow when you use your aura on it, plus the blade will be super-heated. It should cut through most things" He passed me the red knife, which I named _Flame._

"And the other one?" I asked, watching the knife glow as I used my aura

"The other one, can emit more shadows for you to use, you could throw it at a wall and create more cover. It also carries an EMP, you could throw it at lights to disable them…"

"Or at people to shock them" I grabbed the Black Knife, which I named _Storm._

"Yep, my wand's still cooler though" He said, holding up his wand "It shoots fire, ice, lightning, _and_ it can turn into a staff!"

"A matter of taste I suppose" I said, opening the fridge again, and tossing him a beer. "Cheers"

"To new beginnings!" Rowen said, sitting down and taping his beer can to my Coke can.

"Yeah… new beginnings!" I said, downing my coke. I tossed the can in the air and pinned it to the ceiling with _Storm._ I'd never known any life without thievery, but here I was, about to enter a school for good-hearted warriors. One thought was going through my head…

LETS DO IT!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: From Shadows**

…You can't stop them. Only they can destroy themselves. From the inside, they could burn each other. That's why Honour must be established, and Unity must be upheld. No secrets, no lies…

Fen Kuro

I walked among people I tried to avoid. People who would usually try to kill me when they see me. But today was different, today I was one of them. A Hunter! A few days ago I was glaring at one, cuffed to a lamppost. Now, I was smirking at tons of them, with two _really_ dangerous knives in my belt. Rowen and I both looked like a badass, me with my dark combat gear, hood and shadows creeping towards me when I walked past. Rowen twirling his wand, which sparked and flashed, while tipping his top hat to anyone who looked at us. With his pristine white suit adorned with Shoulder, elbow and knee pads, glowing with dust.

Sure, we were _incredibly_ conspicuous, but so did everyone else. Kids with multi-coloured hair, huge swords and…

"Look, its scythe girl!" I whispered to Rowen

"Who?" He looked over at her

"The short one, by the blonde girl" I said, pointing over to them. The blonde one looked over at us and Rowen winked. The girl rolled her eyes. "Is that her sister or something?"

"I guess, what were you saying about a Scythe?"

"Hello and welcome to beacon" A hologram of the Huntress who arrested me earlier stopped me from finishing my conversation. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch" She then proceeded to lecture us.

"Ugh! It's so boring" Rowen moaned. "Make it stop!"

"If I threw Storm at it, the entire ship would fall from the sky" I said, looking down at my knife.

"That" I said, in awe "Is the kind of place we should have been robbing"

"Yeah" Rowen said, mouth wide. The large courtyard and tall towers of Beacon stood ahead of us. Watching over it all was Ozpin's tower. I wondered whether he was looking down right now, looking at who had arrived.

"Where do we go now?" Rowen asked, looking around at the other new students.

"Dunno, let's just wing it" I said, walking towards the Academy.

"Hello!" A Faunus girl ran up to us. "Are you the new second year's?"

"Um…" Rowen stammered.

"Yes, we are" I said. The girl had long brown hair, brown eyes, and huge rabbit ears.

"Great, I'm Velvet, Team CFVY" She said, extending her hand

"Fen" I said, taking the hand and shaking it

"Rowen" he said, doing the same "So, team Coffee?"

"Yes, C. F. V. Y" Velvet said

"Nice to meet you, Professor Ozpin sent me to meet you. I'm supposed to take you to see your team after He gives his speech" She said, and followed the other new arrivals.

"Well, that was, different" Rowen said. Before we walked off after her.

()

"So, why did two students leave?" I asked Velvet

"They said they couldn't keep up with lessons, so they left" Velvet said sadly "It doesn't happen very often"

"Hmm, so, our team…" Rowen began

"Are the two girls left after Brent and Ty left" Velvet said "Iris and Eden"

"Wait, was their team name BITE?" I asked, Velvet nodded "That's hilarious!"

"At least it was spelt right…" Rowen muttered

"I heard that" Ozpin was stood behind us

"Heard what? I didn't…" Rowen stammered

"It's fine Mr Jikan. Mr Kuro…"

"Stop calling me that!" I said

"Thank you for accepting my invitation. It is very rare for students to start at Year 2, but you've both had enough experience in your 6 years of living on the streets" Ozpin sipped his coffee "And I'll try to spell your team name properly Mr Jikan"

"Thanks Sir" Rowen said nervously

"Well, enjoy yourselves here, I trust I'll see you later" Ozpin walked off, his cane tapping against the floor as he went.

()

"Anyway, they're just in here" Velvet had led us to the dorms, the newer students hadn't got here yet. "You ready?"

"Why wouldn't we be?" Rowen asked.

She opened the door "Well, here are your new teammates!"

The first girl was stood by the window, watering a small potted plant. She had her long brown hair tied in a ponytail. Her highlights in her hair matched her eyes, a deep green that seemed to move like grass in the wind. She wore a simple outfit. A brown T-shirt that read "Plant powered" and shorts. She had no shoes on.

The second girl was a Faunus. It was VERY obvious she was a Faunus. She was sat on her bed, her blonde hair hanging over the left side of her face, hiding one of two large blue-grey eyes. It was braided down her back between two wings. Two large, feathery white wings tucked close to her back. She wore an off-white tank top (Probably to allow wing space) and a matching combat skirt and knee-high heels.

Rowen stared awkwardly at the blonde girl's wings as I managed to mutter "Sup, I'm Fen"

"Eden" the nature girl said, before walking over to snap Rowen out of his trance

"Wha? Oh, sorry" He said, coming back to reality "I'm Rowen"

The Winged girl stood up and looked at Rowen disapprovingly, before walking over to Fen "Hi, I'm Iris"

"Are those?" Rowen stammered, still staring at Iris's wings

"Real? Yes, they are" She replied, hovering a little to prove it.

"So… cool…" Rowen was still fixated on the wings

"Yeah…" She looked away from Rowen and towards Fen "Thanks for _not_ staring at me"

"No problem…" I said, we were all getting bored of Rowen staring, so I activated my 3 step plan. Step one: Wave hand In front of face. Step two: Say name. Step three: Slap.

"Ow!" he said, falling to the floor. I looked down and smiled at him.

"Anyway, tell us about yourselves" Eden said, still tending her plant

"Um…" I looked at Rowen "We… are... "

"Street magicians!" Rowen interrupted, saving both of our futures with two words. "We perform tricks for passers-by!"

"Oh yeah? What kinds of tricks?" Iris asked

"Card tricks and stuff" I said

"What about your skills in combat and stuff?" Eden asked, finally turning away from her plant "Semblances, weapon proficiencies?"

"I'm pretty good at hitting people with sticks of all sizes" Rowen said, twirling his wand for effect "And my semblance is Time. I can slow time around me, kinda makes others feel like I'm teleporting"

"Cool, and yours Fen?" Iris asked

"Um…" I started. I'd never really talked about my semblance, since everyone just said it was "Creepy". And it was, controlling shadows is kinda like a vampire thing. "I'm good with knives, throwing them and stuff. My semblance is…" I looked over at Rowen nervously.

"What? Come on, you don't need to hide it if it's different!" Eden said. She proved her point by making a plant grow from her pot to touch me on the shoulder. "Mine's nature!"

"Ok…" I said, a bit more assured when I thought about the girl's powers "I can control shadows, I can blend in with them, move them, I could probably do more with them, but I haven't tried"

After a few seconds of staring (and a thought process of "Is he a vampire? A Grimm? WHAT IS GOING ON?") Iris said "Well, that's certainly… unique"

"Coming from the girl with wings" Rowen remarked, receiving a dark look from Iris.

"Well, now we're on equal grounds for staring! Let's go to sleep, I'm tired" Eden said, collapsing on her bed.

"Yeah, you two have got combat practise tomorrow, you need your rest" Iris agreed, before falling face first on her bed, to protect her wings. Rowen had already time shifted into his bed. Leaving me standing in the middle of the room.

"Night then" I said, extending my arms and pulling the shadows in.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: We'll Rise**

But lies are as hard to keep as secrets. They began fighting amongst themselves, leaving the group, pulling the cloak that is fear thinner and thinner over the city. Because of this, their honour is in question, and so the fear they exert over Vale has weakened…

Rowen Jikan

I woke up the next day, thinking, where the hell am I? Then I remembered, as I looked over at the other beds, containing Fen, Iris and Eden. I was at beacon. And today was combat practise. Which I was terrible at. I jumped out of bed, and started practising. Right, left, spin, extend staff, jab, and sweep. It's just like a fighting game! All I have to do to win is remember the combos. Fen would be fine with this. He'd be all like "watch this!" and throw his knife, then be all like "Wha cha cha!" and summon in the shadows while he stabs the enemies.

"Dude, chill" Fen was out of bed, stood in the corner of the room, obscured by shadows. I hate it when he does that. "Just use your time thing to dodge when anything hits you, you'll be unbeatable!"

"I know, but I need to get in some solid hits!" I said, frustrated

"Use the dust rounds we got, point your wand and light 'em up!" Fen replied

"Alright…" I said, still not sure about that plan "Who are we fighting anyway? Grimm?"

Fen Kuro

We were NOT fighting Grimm.

"Rowen Jikan Vs Yatsuhashi Daichi" Goodwitch said

"CRAP" Rowen said, as Yatsuhashi stood up with his FREAKIN' MASSIVE SWORD.

"Have fun" I said "And…"

"Don't die, haha, I already did that one" He said before descending to the arena to his imminent death.

He took out his wand and began to pace around the arena.

"Hey big guy!" Rowen said, twirling his wand "you get first hit!"

Yatsuhashi charged forwards, swinging his sword at Rowen. Who was no longer there. There was a bang from behind the big guy, and Rowen appeared again, shooting rounds from his wand, now extended into staff form. He leapt up and smacked Yatsuhashi round the head with it, causing him to fall to the floor. He swung wildly upwards, missing Rowen by miles, who appeared to be teleporting around.

"Ah, this guy and his time semblance" I said to Iris and Eden, who were watching with their mouths wide open.

Back I the arena, Rowen had the big guy on the ropes. He was relentlessly smashing his staff into Yatsuhashi's chest. Hitting him with fir dust at the same time. Whenever the big guy tried to fight back, Rowen had moved behind him again. He sent one final blow to Yatsuhashi's head, ending the fight.

"Mr Jikan wins the match" Goodwitch stated

"Obviously!" I yelled down

"Next, Fen Kuro Vs Fox Alistair"

I stood up, and looked over at team CFVY, Velvet smiled at me, Fox stood up and nodded towards the Arena. He was tall, thin, and had disconcerting scars all over him. His elbow blades didn't look very inviting either. I walked down, and we began to circle each other.

"Hey there buddy" I said confidently "Nice to meet you" I held out my hand.

"May the best man win" He said, shaking my hand. By "may the best man win" I guess he meant let's skip the crap and kick some butt. I pulled shadows towards me, obscuring his view, and then lunged forwards, throwing Storm and deflecting his blind strike with Flame. I aimed a kick at his shin, before cutting his weapons from his arms with Flame. I drew the shadows back, bowed and initiated a backflip kick, knocking Fox flat on his back. He leapt up, then threw an enraged punch at my face. Staggered, I held up my hand instinctively. Shadowy tendrils held Fox in the air, unable to move.

"What?" He yelled, struggling to get free "Let go of me!" I made a fist, which appeared magnified by shadows. I mimed a punch, which sent the shadow fist flying into Fox, breaking his aura.

"Congratulations Mr Kuro, you win the match" Goodwitch said, slightly in awe. I looked up at the spectators, who all looked the same. Someone started to clap. Then everyone joined in, including a dazed Fox.

"You okay buddy?" I asked, offering him a hand up.

Rowen Jikan

See? What did I say? Fen is too good at this stuff! He went all shadow-ninja on Fox! Sure he took a few hits (unlike me) but he did it so much cooler! I'm supposed to be the one with style, not him, but he sure pulled it off. I didn't even know his shadow powers could do that!

"What the hell was that!?" I asked him.

"I don't know" He replied "I just… acted instinctively I guess"

"Really? You didn't say anything about your shadows being solid." Iris asked

"Well, like I said, I haven't had much practise with it" Fen retorted

"I guess you could say he has a _dark_ secret!" Eden joked

"Ugh, that joke was bad E" Fen stated "where do we go next?"

"We've got to see Ozpin, find out what are Team name is, and who team leader will be" Iris said

"He better of spelt it right…" I muttered

Fen Kuro

"Come in" Ozpin said. His office was huge, but quite empty. Except for his desk, and one large window. We walked over to his desk.

"Hello Professor" Iris said

"I suppose you are ready for your Team name and leader?" Ozpin asked. We nodded. "All right then. Fen Kuro, Iris Sukai, Rowen Jikan, Eden Puranto. You will work together as team FIRE…"

"Thanks…" Rowen muttered

"Led by, Fen Kuro" Ozpin finished

"Well then. One: hah you used my proper name. Two: Why me?" I asked.

"You showed exceptional potential in battle" Ozpin replied, sipping his coffee

"And Rowen didn't?"

"No, he is a great fighter. But _you_ have more to learn. Mr Jikan seems to have reached his peak."

"That's not true!" Rowen interjected "Ok, maybe my semblance is at its best, but my combat skills need work"

"Exactly, Mr Kuro's combat skills are excellent, and so is his semblance. But it can be even better" Ozpin stated

"Why was neither of us leader?" Iris asked, Eden nodding behind her

"I have just explained why" Ozpin continued calmly "Now, if that is all, I will see you later"

()

So, I got picked as team leader. Cool huh? I thought I would be able to go back to sleep after that, but no. Roman called.

"Hey, how's my favourite little pair of street rats?" He said through my scroll "How's things?"

"Good, I'm team leader, nothing else happened yet" I said, partly lying

"No, no. I mean with your little plan to steal my stuff" Roman said angrily

"What do we do?" Rowen asked nervously

"I didn't steal it, I borrowed it" I lied

"Yeah, of course. Meet me by the docks in an hour with a method of payment. Or I'll find you and kill you" He hung up.

"Balls, what do we do?" Rowen said, starting to panic.

"We go see Roman" I said, trying to be calm

"We can't fight him on our own! He has an army!"

"Don't exaggerate, he has a couple of guys with guns and a crap ton of dust"

"We _still_ cant fight him"

"Maybe we could…" I muttered "If we got Iris and Eden to help"

"Or, we could avoid being hated by our team, and take them by surprise"

"From the shadows… we could use fear against them…" I said, formulating a plan in my mind. "Let's do this"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Fear**

Fear ran from them. Dissolved into everyone, and everything. So that fear could fight back, and destroy their honour. This is how it happened. This is why…

"Ah! Fen, my man. How are you?" The man said

"Who are you?" I asked, this was not what Roman had said would happen. He had said to meet _him_ at this building, not this guy. He wore black Atlesian army fatigues with a trench coat, and what seemed to be a black beanie, but through experience I'd learnt was a mask, and sunglasses, which was strange for this time of night. His fringe poked down from under it, his hair was jet black, but streaked with grey. One large scar ran diagonally down his face through his eye.

"I'm a… friend, of Mr Torchwick. My name, is Mr Fade"

"No first name?" I said, growing suspicious

"Hmm…" He looked at me seriously "Vaughn Fade" He said as he extended his hand.

"Pleasure" I didn't shake it.

"That's not very polite" His hand slid over his weapon

"Neither is _that_ " I did the same.

"Pay up boy, before someone gets hurt" He unsheathed his blade, a silver Katana that glowed with a blueish hue. "This sword isn't for sushi"

"I don't see anyone around to get hurt, except you of course" I unsheathed Storm and Flame. Rowen appeared behind Fade, and smiled at me. I pushed the shadows forward, encircling the man.

He leapt forwards, clashing his blade with mine. Unfazed by the darkness. I jumped back, and threw Flame, which sliced cleanly through Fade's sword. Rowen swept his feet out from underneath him using his staff.

"How's that, punk?" Rowen said through gritted teeth

"A friend? That's not very sporting of you" He picked up the half of his sword with a hilt, whispered something, and it regrew.

"How the hell…" I began, before being cut off by Fade launching himself at me. I summoned shadows, and punched him to the ground, then held him still. "Who are you?"

"Ah, that my boy, is for me to know, and you to find out. Enjoy the sword, I'll be back for you later" Fade said, before sinking through the floor, leaving his sword behind.

"Damn it. He'll go back to Roman" I said, kicking the sword he left behind

"Don't bet on it" Rowen said, pointing at the pile of White Fang bodies "Looks like he isn't a fan of him either"

I turned my attention to the sword. It was perfectly reformed, with intricate writing on the hilt reading _Darcassan. Repassete_ was written on the blade. There were more, but I couldn't read them.

"What does that mean?" Rowen asked, as if I'd know the answer. Strangely, I think I did.

" _Repassete_ must be something to do with repairing, _Darcassan_ may be the name of the sword" I guessed.

"Well, who gets the Sword?" Rowen asked

I put it down and walked off "I don't care, anyone can have _Darcassan_ " I said the last word sarcastically, and the blade seemed to react to it. The writing glowed brighter, and flew towards my hand. I grabbed it out of the air.

"COOL! I WANT IT!" Rowen said, extending his hand and yelling "Darcassan!"

The Katana stayed in my hand "Guess it's mine then" I said "I'll buy you a beer if you let me keep it?"

"Sure" Rowen's expression lightened as I sild the sword onto my back.

"I guess Darcassan is another charm then? To summon it?" I wondered aloud "I think I'll call it Silver"

"How original!" Rowen said sarcastically "What about Mirror? I can see myself in it as well as one…" He looked at the blade and adjusted his hair under his hat. "Now, let's go get that beer…"

Vaughn Fade

That was pretty sloppy, I got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Lost the Mister's sword. He's gonna kill me. I was supposed to give to the Woman. I slipped out of a wall and ran forwards, not seeing, not caring, through walls. I would try to avoid them if I could see. I knew when I ran into the Mister's house though.

"Mister!" I gasped

"Yes Vaughn?" He was sat somewhere in front of me, writing as always, I could hear his pen scratching along paper.

"The sword… I…"

"You lost it? Interesting… Who beat you?" He appeared unfazed by this, I could still hear him writing.

"How did you know?"

"I know all, you forget that I see everything? Now answer me, who took the sword?"

"A boy named Fen, and his friend" I spluttered, afraid of what he was doing in the shadows.

"Ah, Kuro and Jikan, shadow and time. It is wise for you to lose to them, they are very powerful" The Mister said. "You got greedy didn't you? Thought you could steal from them…"

"So… it's OK?" I asked, beginning to fade through the wall

"Hmm, yes, I believe so. She will take it from them if necessary. Try to resist temptation next time, I know it's hard, but I cannot have an ally who steals from…" He stopped writing "Potential clients. Now, leave me to my writings."

I faded through the wall. And into the night.

Iris Sukai

They arrived back around midnight, cloaked in shadows, so no human could see them. Luckily, I'm a Faunus, so I have great night vision. Fen returned with a sword on his back, Rowen seemed very excited about it.

"What else do you think it does?" Rowen asked Fen loudly

"Apart from fly to its owner and glow? I don't know. We could probably add more 'magical words' to make it do more stuff, but otherwise I have no idea" Fen said, quiet as usual.

"Aw, no assault rifle mode? Try saying assault rifle?" Rowen said

"Okay, assault rifle" Nothing happened

"What's that button do?" Rowen poked somewhere on the hilt. The Katana leapt up from Fen's hands, and turned into an ornate silver rifle, with a matching scope and supressor. "Marksman rifle? Cool, not as cool as an assault rifle, but still cool"

"Where'd you two get that?" I wondered

"So who the hell was that Fade guy?" Fen asked Rowen

"I dunno, he seemed pretty knowledgeable though, he knew your name" Rowen replied

"I wonder who sent him." Fen said, before walking inside.

"Iris? Whatcha doing up this late?" Eden said, yawning

"Oh, hey E, just waiting for Fen and Rowen to come back" I said, walking away from the window.

"Ok, night…" She face planted back into her pillow. Just before the boys walked in.

"Heya Iris" Fen said casually

"Where have you two been?" I asked angrily

"We went to see a friend" Rowen replied, walking into the bathroom

"Must've been quite a good friend to get that sword" I muttered, before sliding into bed.

"Itsh alsho a Markshman Wifle!" Rowen said from the bathroom, his mouth full of toothpaste


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: School**

…there's no honour among thieves… no unity among the evil… no light in the dark…

Fen Kuro

Ah, school, the thing I never had to go through because I became a badass thief at the age of 6. If all schools were like Beacon, except for the history lessons, I get the impression that school is basically training for how best to kill stuff. No, really.

"Now, as most of you know, Grimm are evil beasts capable of killing you in many ways…" Port began, pacing the room as half of the class fell asleep "…Including death by feathers. It is likely that you two have never ran into any Grimm, but soon, Mr Kuro and Mr Jikan will"

"Say what?" Rowen said, jerking awake.

"Tomorrow we're sending you into the forest to collect the relics left behind by the new students going through initiation" Port explained

"So, we go into the forest, kill some stuff, take the chess pieces, and come back, without getting impaled by feathers and or claws?" I asked

"Yes. That is correct" Port agreed

"Talk about a trial by fire" Rowen said, running his hand through his hair.

"Everyone else went through imitation last year, you two need to catch up as quickly as possible! Your team will accompany you to ensure your safety" Port continued. I looked over at Iris and Eden, who smiled reassuringly. "Anyway, I will see the rest of you tomorrow, class dismissed"

As we left the room, Rowen began to freak out.

"I didn't think we would have to fight that much Grimm yet! I haven't trained enough!" He said

"Whoa, chill, there's four of us, one can fly, one can control the forest itself and I can use shadows. We'll be fine!" I said, trying to calm him down

"You just want to test your new sword!" Rowen yelled

"Plus" Iris continued "You can slow time! You're really powerful!"

"Ok, Ok" Rowen said, taking deep breaths "We got this…"

()

"Remember students, these Grimm can and will kill you, so use caution. Your main objective is to retrieve the relics. So, good luck" Goodwitch said, before launching us into the forest. We flew through the air, adopting our individual "landing strategies". Iris continued to fly instead of landing, Eden grabbed a large leaf to slow her descent, Rowen flipped off the trees. I had no idea how to land. I had no plan, nothing, so I tried using my shadow power to catch myself, miming grabbing something out of the air. I felt cold wash over me as a shadowy arm lowered me to the ground.

"Sup" Eden was sat in a tree above me "You OK?"

"Yeah, where are we going?" I asked, brushing myself off.

"The Temple" Rowen flipped down next to me, Smirking as if to say, ' _I_ didn't need a shadow hand to land'.

"How far? I asked "And how the hell did _you_ know where we were going?"

"Skills!" Rowen said, twirling his wand infuriatingly

"He eavesdropped on me and E talking about it" Iris landed in the tree next to Eden, before picking her up and floating her down to ground level.

"Let's go! We can be there and back in about 3 hours if we don't run into too much Grimm" Eden began marching away into the jungle, followed by me and the other two.

"Alright then, lets follow Miss Indiana Jones over there" Rowen muttered, stowing his wand in his top hat.

The Mister

I set down my pen. My story had reached its end so far. Not precisely a story, more a, documentary. Of things that are, that will be, that have been. It is my duty to write them, for no one else can see them. Those brigands, those, _thieves,_ hiding so cleverly in the shadows. Now one of them asks _me_ for a weapon? My smiths are not to be taken lightly, their skill is unmatched!

 _You sure 'bout that?_

They create the finest weapons, with the finest enchantments I can weave.

 _I've seen better._

Of course you have seen better, the sword Vaughn lost was… excellent, capable of self-repair, summoning, and other things I didn't manage to analyse.

 _Fade was a fool, you were a fool to give it to him…_

"DO NOT SPEAK AS IF YOU KNOW ANY BETTER" I yelled aloud. The servants looked at me as if I were crazy. I moved my hand towards my Morning Star. But, not exactly me…

 _Let me deal with those idiots… you know I can… and you would know nothing about it…_

No.

 _You will give me control…_

No.

 _You cannot defend against yourself…_

Stop.

I'm… not… crazy…

 _It's called Schizophrenia_

My hand slipped from the handle of my weapon. I'm running out of time, I must relay what I know before…

The sword. He calls it Mirror. He's using it…

Fen Kuro

"Guys, you have _a lot_ of Grimm ahead" Iris warned, unsheathing her Trident and swooping down next to us. Rowen twirled his wand nervously.

"You ready?" I asked him, receiving a weak nod. "Alright, Rowen, try to get behind them with Iris. E, let's go straight for them" I drew Mirror as Rowen disappeared and Iris flew back into the sky. I advanced forward with Eden. The Grimm stood ahead of us, a solid black mass of hatred. Beowolves, Ursai, Deathstalkers, the whole package.

"I hope this sword is up for it" I muttered, Mirror in one hand, Flame in the other. Each of us attacked a type of enemy. Iris, obviously, went for the Nevermore, Eden went for the Ursai, and Rowen went for the Beowolves. Leaving "The fearless leader" that is me to fight the Deathstalker and the King Taijitu. I dodged a giant scorpion stinger by inches, and proceeded to slice cleanly through it. The Deathstalker tried to grab me with its claws, but I held up my hands and began shadow wrestling with it, pinning it down, before throwing Mirror directly at the monster's eye. I yelled "Darcassan!" And the sword came back, just in time to deflect the King Taijitu's teeth. Rowen shot a dust shot to distract the other head as I impaled the first head with Mirror, then burned a hole right through the other by throwing Flame. I picked both up and sheathed them. Rowen was circling the Beowolves, blasting them with dust, Eden had trapped several Ursai with her plant powers and was basically "Pruning" them. Iris was stabbing the Nevermore with her Trident, dipping and Dodging its beak and claws. I spotted the Temple through the trees to my left.

"I'm going to grab the Relics!" I yelled, running towards the temple. "Hold them off!" I ran flat out, sliding under the Beowolves' claws, shadow-slapping the Ursai, stabbing the Boarbatusks in the belly. I grabbed the remaining relics, chess pieces, before getting back into the fight. I saw Rowen running at me, waving his arms franticly. He was mouthing something to me.

"NEVERMORE!"

Rowen Jikan

BOOM! I was running circles around the Grimm, shooting them with my dust wand. Aiming is much easier when you can slow time.

"I'm going to grab the relics!" Fen yelled, running off towards the Temple. I finished the last of the Beowolves, Eden was handling the Ursai. Iris was still struggling with the Nevermore, she stabbed it in the chest, and it shot its deadly feathers towards the left of the clearing. Right towards Fen.

"Crap! FEN!" I ran as fast as I could "NEVERMORE! WATCH OUT!"

The feathers rained down as Fen looked up in disbelief.

"NO!" I yelled. Several feathers bounced off his aura, breaking it, before one feather met its target. Its razor sharp end lodging itself in his chest. He fell backwards, dropping his sword.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Time**

Vaughn Fade

Why did I have to go see this woman? The Mister has lots of servants, why did he have to send me? If I hadn't left the wolves, Connie would have to be doing this work. She had a fearsome reputation for combat and theft. Both things I disliked intensely. I walked into what I imagined was a warehouse, judging by the echoes and sound of boxes being moved. I could _feel_ the amount of dust in the building. And I could feel the aura coming off of the Woman, Intensely warm, and violent.

"Who are you?" She said, her heels clicking against the floor as she walked up to me

"Vaughn Fade, The Mister sends his regards" I said, talking to where I gathered her head was. "You are Cinder Fall, correct?"

"Yes, I asked for a sword, where is it?" she asked angrily.

"It was… apprehended" I said nervously

"By who?" She fumed

"I can help with that!" Roman Torchwick walked up. I'd recognise his voice anywhere, along with the strong smell of cigars "This filthy rat, killed my men, and lost the sword to Fen and Rowen, who I arranged to talk to. I arrived a few minutes after you dispatched all but one of them"

"Is that so?" Cinder walked behind me "Why did you need to talk to them?"

"They borrowed some equipment for a mission, I needed to talk to them about it" Roman said, lifting his cane off the ground.

"I just… your men were in the way…" I stuttered

"Well, well, well. Even a blind man can tell he's at gunpoint" Cinder said "Tell the Mister, that if I can't have the first sword, I'll have another one"

"Why do you need a weapon so badly? You have enough here for an army." I pointed out

" _I don't_ a very powerful man who I owe needs it" Cinder said "Now go" I grunted and walked away

"Hey! Watch out for that… oh yeah" Roman yelled as I walked through the wall.

Rowen Jikan

Time stood still. No really. Completely still. I stared at Fen, who was impaled by the feather. Everything was frozen, for longer than I'd ever done before. I walked over to where Fen lay dead on the floor. I stared at him, unable to act. It was as if I was rewinding a video. Fen got up, the feather left him, and I stood between him and the feather. Time began to move, slowly, carefully, and I deflected the feather.

"Whew, thanks Row, that was close" Fen said, running casually into the fray.

"Yeah…" I stood there, wide-eyed "Close…"

What the hell was that? I looked down at my hands. What happened? Did I hallucinate? No, it was too real for that… I winced as a jolt of pain shot through my head.

"I got the relics, let's head back" Fen stated to Iris and Eden. They walked off, leaving me standing there.

"You coming?" Fen asked, a wide smile on his face. "Come on, Ozpin will be waiting"

"Yeah" what the hell was happening to me?

()

"You're back" Ozpin said calmly, sipping his tea.

"Yeah, we got the relics" Fen said, giving Ozpin the bag of chess pieces.

"Ah, wonderful" Ozpin looked over at me. "Mr Jikan, would you please accompany me to my office?"

"Why?" I asked. Did he know what was going on? "Did I do something wrong?"

"Just to take a look at what you did in the field" he said, a twinkle in his eyes. I followed him to his office, heart thumping, head pounding, where he poured himself a fresh cup of tea, and gestured for me to sit.

"What's up?" I said as casually as I could

"You, Mr Jikan are very surprising" He said, stirring his drink

"What? What did I do?" I said. Did I do that? Did I cause something?

"Don't tell me you weren't aware of what happened to Mr Kuro?" I shook my head. "Well, here's what _I_ think happened. That Nevermore feather killed Fen"

My face drained of colour. Did that mean it happened? I looked down at my hands, which were trembling.

"Even your reflexes weren't quick enough to block that feather" He peered at me from over his spectacles. "Tell me, in your words, what happened?"

"I… The feather hit Fen, he fell backwards, and I stopped time…" I was getting dizzy, it was hard to concentrate. "I walked over to him and…" I winced as pain shot through my head. I fell of the chair.

"The effort of using that much energy seems to have… not been very good for you" Ozpin helped me up, and he helped me to the elevator. "We need to get you to your Dorm. You need rest"

"No, no, I…"

"It's Ok Rowen, I…" I blacked out.

Fen Kuro

"You handled that well" Iris commented "You gave good commands, fought efficiently"

"Yeah, you were all like" Eden mimed sword techniques with her trowel "Wha-Cha!"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool" I said smugly, polishing my sword (actually trying to read the words written on it) "But, I am really tired… and hungry"

"We can head down to dinner in a bit, when Rowen gets back" Eden said

"Remember to wash your hands this time E" Iris said, before breaking into laughter

"Wish he'd hurry up, I'm starving" I moaned, lying back on my bed. As if on cue, Rowen arrived. By arrived, I mean he was carried in unconscious by Ozpin. "Professor? What's wrong with him?" I said as he deposited Fen on his bed.

"He's very worn out, used his semblance rather a lot" Ozpin said reaching for the door. "You three all Ok?" I noticed he looked at me more than Iris or Eden. "Right then, better get yourselves down to Dinner, you don't want to be late do you?"

()

We walked into the hall, which was already packed with students. I spotted Velvet in the corner with her Team, and ran over to talk to them.

"Hey guys! Velvet, Coco, Fox, Yats. Can I call you Yats?" I said

"Hey Fen, how'd the mission go?" Velvet asked

"Good, we ran into a lot of Grimm near the temple" I replied

"I heard the First years had to fight a Deathstalker _and_ a Nevermore" Coco stated

"That so? I fought both of those!" I said triumphantly.

"Good for a first time, but I could kill more than you" Coco bragged

"It isn't a competition!" Velvet interrupted.

"Anyway, I'll see you in lessons tomorrow!" I waved to them and walked away


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Furry**

Fen Kuro

Combat training, a wonderful time for students to come together… in brutal 1 on 1 combat. Today, Jaune vs Cardin! So, in other words, bullying!

"This is the part where you lose!" Cardin taunted

"Over my dead ugh…" Jaune moaned as Cardin kneed him in the stomach. Goodwitch then lectured him on aura gauging.

"Remember everyone, the vital festival is only a few months away! It won't be long before other students begin arriving in Vale, so keep practising! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale" She stated

"Combat tournament huh? You going for it Fen?" Rowen asked

"Yeah, maybe. What about you? You'd win by miles!" I replied.

Jaune walked up next to Rowen. "Hey pal, bad luck with the duel"

"Yeah, next time, keep your stance lower" I said, patting him on the back

"Thanks" Jaune muttered, before walking faster to find his team.

"Poor guy" Rowen commented

()

Ah, lunch! Warm, delicious food! I sat on a table with my team, team CFVY and Team CUBE. The last of which walked over to introduce themselves.

"Hi" The girl said

"Sup" I replied, chowing down on some pizza

"We're Team CUBE" She continued. She had long blonde hair tied into two ponytails on either side of her head and large blue eyes. The two ponytails ended with black and red highlights. "I'm Cho"

"Umar" He was tall and broad shouldered, with a shaved head and dark, bloodshot eyes. As well as a shadow of a black beard on his face. He had a dark tan, as if he lived close to an incinerator. He wore a coal-stained apron, with several singe marks on it.

"Ben, call me benny" This guy looked fun. His Brown hair had streaks of blonde in it, and his green eyes shined mischievously. Where the rest of the Team's outfits were impeccable, he wore his tie around his head, and his sleeves rolled up. He wore trainers instead of smart shoes.

"Um… I'm Eugene" The last of the group was short and thin. His black hair stuck out everywhere, as if he'd been attacked by a hair gel Grimm. His red eyes were magnified by his large glasses. He stood hunched over.

"Nice to meet you" I said, still eating my pizza.

"WE'LL BREAK HIS LEGS!" Some girl yelled

"YES WE WILL!" I yelled to no-one in particular, raising my glass, then downing it.

"So, I've heard you have a really cool semblance" Cho said

"Is that why you came over here?" The team nodded. "What's so cool about it?"

"Duh, you control the darkness!" Eugene said

"And?"

"The boys think it's cool" Cho stated

"How does it work?" Benny asked

"Um… I dunno, I just put my hands out and…" I extended my hand towards the corner of the room, a small shadowy tendril slapped Cardin across the face. CUBE snickered.

"You alright there Velvet?" I asked, smiling smugly over at Cardin.

"Yeah" She said, barely containing her laughter "I'm fine"

"Anything else?" I asked

"Well, I've heard you have a nice sword?" Cho said

"Which've you is a weapons nut?" I asked

"I am" Cho said. I rolled my eyes.

"Darcassan" The sword flew through the open door and into my hand. I used it to cut my pizza.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" She said, staring at the blade in awe

"Like before, I don't know" I said, getting bored "Can I eat my pizza in peace now?"

()

History lessons, a whirl of green hair and words that make no sense. To most people at least. Somehow I managed to follow all the way through the Faunus war without falling asleep.

"Row, wake up" I whispered

"WIZARDS? Hmm? What? Oh, right" Rowen muttered, still half asleep.

"Have any of you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" Oobleck asked. A few people raised their hands.

"Sir" I put my hand in the air "If you don't know anything about your heritage, how do you know if you're a Faunus?"

"Hmm, if you're that interested, I'll talk to you at the end of the lesson about it." Oobleck said before continuing.

()

"You two have been struggling in my class since day 1, now I don't know if it's a lack of interest, or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is. It stops now." Oobleck rambled, stopping only to drink his coffee. "You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school and we only accept the best of the best, SO. I expect you to act like it. History is important gentlemen if you can't learn from it. You're destined to repeat it. Pages 51 to 91, I want an essay on my desk by next class. Now, run along"

Jaune and Cardin left the room, leaving me and the professor.

"Um…" I began

"You want to know if you're a Faunus." Oobleck said "When did you first start thinking about this?"

"Well, I've never known anything about my past so…" I said

"I see, have you ever had any animal-like ears or anything else?" He asked

"Um… don't think so…" Oobleck examined my head as he asked more questions

"How is your night vision?"

"You kidding me? It's ridiculous! My vision is better than daytime in the dark!"

"Hmm" He clicked his fingers next to my head. I felt the familiar feeling of my hair standing on end.

"Well, it appears you have small ears on your head. As if you had tried to keep them flat…"

"So… I _am_ a Faunus?"

"It seems so. NOW! RUN ALONG!" he ran out of the room.

Well then. I didn't expect _that_.

Rowen Jikan

"Where have you been?" I asked Fen when he finally arrived in the dorm

"I was talking to Oobleck remember?" He replied

"Oh yeah, the Faunus thing. How'd it go?"

"Well" He pointed to his hair. He had two weird lumps on his head. Where an animal would have its ears.

"Whoa" I pointed above his head "Ears! How come I've never noticed before? Why are they so small? Try, I dunno, extending them or something" He wiggled his ears, and they stood a few centimetres higher

"Did it work?" He asked, poking his head.

"Yeah, how did you keep them so small?" I asked

"I dunno… cool though right?" At that moment, Iris and Eden walked in.

"Hey guys what's…" Eden began, then her eyes widened. She pointed at Fen "Ears…"

"You're a Faunus?" Iris asked, walking up and poking him. "How?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The Wolves**

Fen Kuro

Ah! A new day, a new… life? Will things be different now I've got wolf ears standing up on my head? Let's find out! I decided to go and talk to another Faunus I know. A very conspicuous one!

"Velvet! Hey!" I said, walking up to the rabbit Faunus.

"Hey Fen what's OH MY GOD" Velvet pointed at my head

"Yeah, I know, ears. Don't ask. I'm just wondering, what's life like as…" I began

"A Faunus? Pretty normal, except for…"

"Hey freak!" Cardin walked up, and was about to grab Velvets ears when he spotted me "Huh? You're a Freak too?"

"No, I'm a Faunus. Problem?" I pulled shadows from the corners of the room

"Yeah, freak" Cardin raised his fist, then screamed in pain. He whirled around, and I saw a sharp-looking needle sticking out of his back. "WHO DID THAT!?" He walked away, looking around for people. Eugene then popped out from round a corner.

"Eugene? That was you?" I asked, still laughing

"Yeah, he wasn't being very nice so…" Eugene muttered

"Are you a Faunus?"

"Yeah, you are too by the looks of it" He replied, pushing his glasses up his nose

"You don't have any ears or…" I looked at his spiky hair "Oh, right…" He nodded and then walked back to his Team. I know it sounds stupid, but I wondered for a sec whether his semblance was super-speed.

Benny Stone

"Hey buddy, Whatcha doing'?" I snuck up behind Umar at his forge. He jumped and dropped a metal ingot.

"Ugh! Damn it Benny! That was…" he raised his hammer

"Whoa, I got it" I flicked my hand and moved the metal back into the forge

"Leave me alone will yah?" The big guy yelled.

Since I'm so heroic, I decided to back away. I walked down to see the rest of the team, and instead got to see Eugene actually being _cool_ for once!

"WHO DID THAT?" Cardin yelled, storming across the room. Eugene was around the corner, peeing himself with laughter next to Fen and Velvet. I decided to go join the fun after Genie left.

"Sup Fen, nice ears" I said, casually walking up

"Wow, that's the first non-freak-out reaction I've had, apart from Cardin's" He remarked, high fiving me. "Thanks"

"No prob. Hey there Velvet" I said, waving to the Rabbit-Girl.

"Hi Benny" She said, then walked off.

"That was fun" I stated, sitting down on a nearby table and stealing some random kid's chip. "How's your day going?" Instead of giving me an answer, the Universe delivered me a white haired magician.

"Fen, I gotta talk to you in a minute, it's important" He looked at me "Who're you?"

"Benny" I said, smiling innocently

"Right…" he looked back at Fen

"Team CUBE, he's pretty cool" Fen remarked, I nodded my head approvingly.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rowen. Now, Fen, this is urgent" He said nervously

"Ok, Ok, I'm coming" Fen picked up his pizza, half saluted at me, then followed Rowen out of the room.

Fen Kuro

"Ok, what's up?" I asked when we arrived back in the dorm.

"Look at this" He turned on the news

"Another demonstration from the treacherous Crime Group left detectives stumped today, as another example of the Forsaken Wolves arson attacks raged in downtown Vale. The criminals seemed to be burning a message into the rooftops of the buildings, here's an image of the destruction" The hologram switched to an image of a rooftop blazing.

"Ok, what's so special about that?" I asked Rowen

"Read it" He said nervously.

The fire was raging, but I could still make out what they were trying to write.

 _Give us the Sword, you know who you are._

 _HYDE WILL FIND YOU_

Cold sweat ran down my face. The Forsaken Wolves were a group of ruthless thieves, assassins and thugs. Capable of really, really bad things. Even the Crime group me and Rowen belong to, the Merry Boys, wasn't that big. We'd been told to avoid anywhere with their symbol on it. A black wolf head burnt into the wall. They were as infamous as the White Fang, but no-one knew who they were, where they are or what they can do. One of their mottos reflected that, "The world can't see us, your Hunters can't stop us. We're invisible"

"You see?" Rowen said

"But, why do they want it?" I asked nervously

"We must've intercepted a courier when we took the sword from Fade…" he muttered

"Roman's men wouldn't have looked for the symbol… they're white fang, not thieves…"

"Also, who's Hyde? How can we turn ourselves in if we don't know where to go?" Rowen ran his hands through his hair. Just when things couldn't get any worse. The Boss called.

"Hey boys? Where are you? You didn't come back after that one job, are you alright?" The familiar voice came through my scroll.

"Yeah, Hood, we're fine, doing an undercover mission for Cinder" I replied

"You should pop over soon, have a beer!" another voice yelled

"I don't drink that stuff, Tucker, maybe Rowen will be in for it" I said, smiling over at Rowen

"No! I'm fine thanks!" He shouted, a bit too loud

"Ok, boys, do give us a visit soon though!" Hood said, ending the conversation.

The Mister

Fire? Those idiots, they'll never get anyone's attention like that…

 _Yeah, should've used blood!_

Shut up, you violent creature!

 _That's not very nice_

"Mister" Fade was back

"What happened? Cinder told the Wolves! If _he_ hears about it…" I said

 _Ooh, is the all Powerful Crypt Okami afraid of the Con-man?_

Be Silent you fool!

"She reported to her contact that we no longer had the sword…"

"AND HE PAINTED IT ON THE ROOFTOPS IN FIRE!" I grabbed Fade, throwing him into a wall "IF _HE_ FINDS OUT THAT THIS, HYDE, IS AFTER…" I dropped Fade, regained my composure.

 _That was close there… you're losing it_

"Sorry…" I muttered

"It's Ok Crypt… I know you…" Fade gasped

"Don't call me that!" I snapped

"Sorry, Mister. I'll leave…" He faded away

 _Come on old man, you can't keep this up… you know I'll win…_

It's not over yet. As long as _he_ doesn't come back…

 _How long can he be kept a secret? You couldn't keep it. The boy wants to be known…_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Run and Hyde**

I'll start this again shall I? I'll be gone soon anyway, it's time to write the whole story. My Name, is Crypt Okami, you may know me as The Mister.

()

Fen Kuro

"Another civil rights campaign was interrupted by the white fang today, leading to violent action from…" Rowen had left the news on all night. We both managed to fall asleep in the end. Iris and Eden wanted to know why we left it on. If we told them, they'd probably turn us in to the police. This mysterious Mr Hyde was different to the rest of the Wolves. Normally, they kept to themselves, but this guy… "…Another arson attack by the infamous Mr Hyde appeared later that night" It cut to picture of another rooftop. The flaming message read:

 _RUN AND HYDE! THE PACK HUNTS YOU!_

A Forsaken Wolves symbol blazed underneath it.

"Row, get up" I said, Rowen jerked awake

"Run and Hyde… the pack hunts you?" Rowen's face drained of colour "Oh God"

"Huh?" Iris yawned

"Oh, good you two are up!" Eden said, leaping out of bed "We're going into town with team CUBE today…"

"WHY!?" Rowen yelled, a bit too angrily.

"What's your problem?" Iris said, folding her arms

"Nothing. Can we go into town with you?" I said, shooting a dark look at Rowen

"Sure!" Eden said

()

Shopping. So much shopping! It almost made me forget about the wolves. I and Rowen went around with Eugene, Benny and Umar, buying games and browsing for weapons. We met up with the girls at around 3.

"Let's go to that café!" Cho said, pulling Iris and Eden with her. We walked around the corner, towards a small café. I turned and looked at the wall next to me. A black symbol was burned into the wall.

"Row… mark" I whispered, Rowen turned and saw it.

"Uh, guys! Maybe we should go to a different place, something doesn't feel right here…" Rowen said, trying to get the others to walk back the other way. A man by the side of the road saw what he was doing, and began to walk towards him. More men with the same clothes did the same.

"GET DOWN!" I yelled. The men pulled out weapons as I pulled out mine. The people in the street hit the deck, as Forsaken Wolves started shooting everything. Our teams fought back. Umar grabbed his hammers from his belt and sent one guy flying, Rowen and Benny fired shots from behind tables.

Then Eugene came into play. I heard an explosion, and a group of Wolves flew through the air. Eugene stepped forwards, releasing blasts of what seemed like dust at the enemies. I ran forwards to help, deflecting bullets with Mirror, slicing down the Wolves. But there were too many of them, like Hyde had said, wolves fight in packs. The girls got cornered, Umar and Benny got knocked out. Soon it was just Rowen, Eugene and I left fighting.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Let me borrow that" a hand grabbed Mirror, and a man in a black trench coat ran towards the remaining enemies.

"Levetar!" He said calmly, then stabbed the ground with the sword. The wolves floated into the air, dropping their weapons.

"Aurasai!" The man yelled, leaping into the air and spinning around, releasing white energy from Mirror. The wolves fell to the ground. The man turned around and smiled.

"Fade?" I muttered walking over to him

"Told you I'd be back for it" Fade said "Who wants a coffee?"

()

"Um… 5 lattes, one green tea, 3 chai…" I ordered the drinks for my friends

"What about the two unconscious ones?" The Waiter asked

"They'll be alright, they don't drink coffee or tea" I said, handing over some Lien

"No, I mean, are they Ok?" he asked

"Yes, they're just taking a nap" Fade said, looking over his glasses with his white eyes.

"Ok then" The waiter walked off, glancing at us every couple of seconds

"What's up with that guy?" Fade asked innocently

"Oh, I don't know maybe he's just concerned about the fact that WE JUST KILLED ABOUT 20 PEOPLE, BROUGHT 2 UNCONCIOUS PEOPLE IN TO HIS CAFÉ, AND ORDERED DEVERAL CUPS OF CHAI, GREEN TEA AND LATTE!?" I yelled, a little bit stressed, as you can tell.

"Well, I didn't know it was that bad…"

"What? Are you blind?" Eugene blurted. The rest of the group gave him dark looks

"Yes, I am" Fade replied calmly "I have a question for you, why did you bring _this sword_ into wolves' territory?"

"It wasn't my idea…" I began

"I'm surprised Hyde hasn't shown up yet, the amount of trouble we just caused" He stirred his green tea. "I think we have enough time to admit things to each other. You and Rowen can go first"

The rest of the group looked at us intently.

"Um…" Rowen began

"Basically… We're Thieves. We have been for half our lives. And we were originally sent to Beacon to… spy, on all of the Hunters. We stole some stuff, and Roman Torchwick, I guess you've heard of him? Told us to meet him. When we got there, this guy" I pointed to Fade "Was standing there with a sword. We managed to beat him and took the sword… which belongs to Mr Hyde. Which is why the Wolves want us dead." I paused for breath. Everyone stared at me in awe.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Iris asked, eyes wide.

"Honestly? We thought you would hate us…" Rowen said, looking down.

"And why'd you come with us if you were being hunted?" Eden asked angrily

"We thought you'd be in danger too" I replied

"Aw, that's really nice of you guys…" Iris muttered

"Wonderful. You feel better now?" Fade said, sipping his tea. "Your turn now Iris"

"What?" She said, blushing. Fade raised his eyebrows "Fine. I grew up in the white fang. I quit when they began to kill people, because I'm against that stuff…"

"And who did you meet there, who you've been purposefully avoiding?" Fade asked casually

"How do you know this stuff?" Iris asked, mouth wide

"Uh, uh, uh. That's for later" Fade leaned back in his chair

"Ok, I met Blake there. She was still there when I left"

"Is she still one of them?" Rowen gasped

"You aren't any better kiddo…" Fade muttered, then yawned and stretched "My turn then I guess. My name's Vaughn Fade, I've been an alcoholic for 5 months" No-one laughed at the joke "Okay then. I work for the Mister" Everyone's jaw hit the floor.

"THE Mister?" Rowen spilt his tea

"Super-rich crime lord Mister?" Benny chimed in

"Yes and yes. That's how I know everything about you. He see's everything. I founded the Forsaken Wolves, stop doing those faces…" (How he knew this I'll never know!) "I founded them with the Mister, and a man called Connie Kuro…"

There were several reactions to this name. Iris and Eden gasped. Rowen and Benny, smiled in awe, Umar frowned angrily, and Eugene and Cho looked confused. Me? You know what I said…


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: The Safe house**

I founded the Criminal group known as the Forsaken Wolves, and I'm going to tell you how to stop them…

()

Fen Kuro

"Dad" I muttered. Somehow I knew, deep down, that my father was a thief. I knew nothing about him, I didn't even know his name. But this I was sure of. Fade nodded slowly.

"Yes, your father was one of the founders, I knew him well. He was a great thief, we used to call him the Con-Man" He laughed "He was the one we got the name from, being a wolf Faunus like you, and he was the first to leave. We were trying to unite thieves, make them… honourable. He saw quickly that this wouldn't work… anyway, I eventually left, then Crypt…"

"Crypt?" Rowen said, a confused look on his face

"…Crypt Okami, the Mister. He left the gang to his friend, Lupa. Her children, Romulus and Remus, along with their friend Fenrir, rule the Wolves now. As for Mr Hyde, I believe he's one of Fenrir's assassins, quite loud for the Wolves usual code of stealth…"

"He wrote messages in fire on the rooftops!" Cho yelled

"…As I said, loud, obvious. But very successful. Capable of a lot of damage. Can't be forgotten easily. If the wolves need anyone important dead, they call Hyde."

"How do we know he's not watching us?" Iris said nervously. Fade laughed.

"Girl, even _I_ could see him coming if he was here. Now, we need to move before he decides to come kill us." He stood up. "Who has a car?"

Everyone looked among themselves. Rowen smiled smugly.

"I've got one" He twirled his car keys.

()

"Is he still alive?" I asked

"No Idea" Fade replied

"Where would he be if were alive?"

"Looking for you"

"Do you think he will?"

"Your Father was very god at that sort of stuff, he'll probably be following us by now."

"Really?"

"If I can find you, he will. _If_ he's alive. This thing go any faster?" Fade leaned over towards Rowen.

"I thought you'd never ask…" He flipped a switch, pressed a button, and then shifted gear. The Nitrous system kicked in, giving the car a burst of acceleration.

"He loves doing that" I told Iris

"Where are we actually going?" Iris asked

()

The Mister (Crypt)

"Why is he here?"

"I don't know"

"He's a wolves' man isn't he?"

"I'll go find out"

Robert Hood, the Leader of the Merry Boys, opened the door.

"Sit" he gestured to the seat across from him.

"Nice place here Robert, not as nice as mine, but still nice. Then again, my manor isn't a thieves den…" I stated

"Don't start that with me Crypt" Hood said, leaning back in his chair "Or I'll have John teach you some etiquette"

 _Let him try…_

"Relax. I'm here to talk about our mutual friend who will be arriving here soon" I said looking at my watch.

"Who?" Hood looked concerned

"Mr Kuro"

"Fen? Where'd you meet him? He's one of my boys." Hood tilted his head to the side curiously

"Oh, no, no, no. Not Fen…" I began. Before I could finish, Hood leapt up and ran to the door, locking it. Then pulled out a knife.

"You… why did you tell him? That a very dangerous man!" Hood was acting hysterical

 _Just kill him, you're going to anyway_

If I kill him before Connie arrives, we'll both be dead

 _Fair point…_

"He won't be dangerous, his son's coming too" I heard the door of the warehouse open. "He's here now in fact"

"Rob!" Tucker Fry Ran in, breathing heavily "The… Fen…Hyde… wolves…"

Iris Sukai

"Welcome to Major Oak!" Rowen said, opening the door to the large warehouse. Inside was what I could only describe as a busy town centre. People walked around, buying weapons and food with either Lien, or stolen items. One tall man was trading a sofa in for an axe! Small apartments surrounded a tree almost as high as the ceiling, with a trunk larger than any of the apartments. Half way up the trunk, there was a window and a balcony, with stairs leading up to it.

"Fen! How are you?" A fat man ran up and gave Fen a drunken hug. He was short, with a red face, thick eyebrows, and a circle of black hair surrounding a bald patch. He wore a white shirt, with lots of red marks on it. I'm guessing wine. "Who're your friends?"

"Iris, Eden, Benny, Cho, Eugene, Umar, and…" Fen began

"Vaughn? That you?" He let out a mighty laugh and hugged Fade as well

"Tucker!? How're you keeping old man?" Fade punched the fat guy's arm

"Who're you calling old? Why're you here anyway? Are these new recruits or something?" Tucker looked at us

"No, we're here for protection… against the wolves" Fen mumbled. Tucker held up one finger, and ran surprisingly quickly up to the tree. He walked inside it.

"That went well" I whispered to Eden. Two men accompanied him out of the tree. The first one ran down to see us. He was tall and thin, with long-ish brown hair. He had the shadow of a moustache and stubble at the bottom of his chin.

"Fen, Rowen, thank god you're safe" My first impression? A nice guy "WHY THE HELL DID YOU STEAL FROM THE FORSAKEN WOLVES?" Second impression? Overprotective.

"Who're you?" I asked innocently

"Robert Hood" He bowed "Nice to meet yah, now. Fen, why?" he turned back to Fen

"It's basically his fault" He pointed at Fade, who was whistling away to classical music. Rob was about to go and question Fade, but then the second man appeared.

"Leave him, Hood. It's my fault actually" The man was posh. _Very_ posh. He wore a large white overcoat over a red waistcoat and black shirt. He had a band around his right bicep that had strange markings on it. He looked quite old, with his grey hair and trimmed beard, but his face was younger looking. His grey eyes seemed to _burn_ with either happiness or sadistic joy, I couldn't tell which. "Hello children, you may know me as the Mister. I understand you've had a lot of introductions today, what with my friend Fade here, and telling each other about your past. But now, I implore you to hear mine" His face twitched a little on the last sentence. Straight away, I didn't know whether to punch him for getting us into this situation with a bunch of violent murderers, or to clap for his speech. Umar obviously went for the first option.

"YOU!" He threw a punch at the Mister's face. Who slapped his hand away as if were nothing.

"Right then, Time to fill you in on what Vaughn here hasn't told you. We have two options, hand in the sword, which _will_ kill us all in the process, or fight back, which _may_ kill us all in the process. I'm guessing anyone of your… line of work, thief or Hunter, would like to fight back. In that case, you'll need information. Information which I have. So, Mr Gekido, please refrain from attacking me." Umar looked at him, confused

"How do you…" he began

"I know a great many things, I have spies everywhere. Continuing on, the Forsaken Wolves are led by 3 people. One of which controls each aspect of the jobs they do. Romulus controls theft, Remus controls thugs and bodyguards, and Fenrir controls the assassins. If we are to defeat them, we will have to go for Fenrir first, then Remus, Romulus can be reasonable. We can deal with Mr Hyde afterwards. Any questions?"

Everyone was silent. Then the questions started.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Training**

You may be asking, how can we defeat them if we don't know who they are? That's simple, I know everything about this city, its problems, its benefits, its secrets. I have found them all over a long career in… unsavoury work…

()

Fen Kuro

"Ok, how do we beat an army of trained killers, without dying?" I asked. The Mister had just finished his speech on attacking the Forsaken Wolves. He left a few gaps.

"Well, I'm sure Mr Jikan has a… cure for that" He looked at Rowen knowingly. His face drained of colour.

"Um, Row? You ok?" I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder

"Yeah, I'll tell you about it later…" Rowen muttered, wide-eyed.

"Hmm… anything else?" The Mister looked around expectantly

"Why do you call yourself the Mister?" Eugene asked innocently. The Mister's eyes flashed red.

"Because I am no longer Crypt Okami, he was a thief, a coward, a murderer…" He said, twitching at the end

"Oh yeah, you said different leaders control different parts, who controlled what when you were there?" Iris asked

"I was the Assassin leader, Vaughn led the Thugs, and Con was the thief. Oh yes, by the way…" he looked at Fen "I believe he's still alive, and he may be here soon"

He said it so casually I instantly thought he was lying. But why would he? He was friends with my Dad, he would have no reason to lie. Would he?

"Anyway, if this is to work, we need some training, and better weapons" Fade said

"Ah, of course!" he reached into his coat and pulled out a thin cylinder of black metal, with ivory ends. "A better wand for you Rowen, that old one is too primitive" Rowen took the weapon, Eyes wide. "It has enchantments on it, like a _true_ magician's wand should. It's made of Ebony and Ivory by the way. To use it for long range, you need only say 'Blazentar' and it will allow you to shoot fire bolts." Rowen's jaw dropped, he looked at me and mouthed 'Better than yours' "Also, you can press this button to convert it into a staff" Rowen pressed it and spun the staff, then turned it back and stowed in in his hat. Then smiled smugly

"Do we get anything?" Benny asked looking in awe that the weapons. The Mister laughed

"No, you're weapons are more than capable, Rowen's was in very bad shape" He replied

"Now, Fen we better get to training you with that sword" Fade said "Where's your training area?" He asked Rob

"Right this way" Rob said, bowing sarcastically

()

"Right then, first off…" Fade began, walking into the training room, and grabbing a sword "…you need to learn how to not sound stupid"

"Huh?" I asked insure how this was linked to combat

"If you yell magic words, all your mystery and fear will be lost. Speak the words in your head, It works just as well"

"Oh, right" I put Mirror down, then said Darcassan in my head. It twitched, then flew into my hand "Sweet"

"Alright, now you got that down, let's try some new stuff. We're not going to use Aurasai, that would just break everything, remember that though… Levatar lifts your enemies into the air" He paced the room as he said this, then stopped "Hmm, let's try just any old combat situation" He adopted a combat stance. I did the same. I threw my sword, Fade narrowly ducking, before slicing sideways with his. I kicked it out of his grip, and summoned Mirror. Fade knocked it out of the air and threw a kick at me, which I blocked with my arm. He unleashed a flurry of kicks, which I had to dodge or block. I countered with a jab, knocking him off guard, then kicked his legs out from underneath him.

"Good. Remember that most opponents _won't_ be blind old men" He said, getting up and picking up his sword

"What type of techniques will Hyde use?" I asked, retrieving Mirror

"Oh, there's no point in teaching you that. If he sees you, you're dead" Fade said calmly

"That's positive…" I remarked

"Alright, let's try your semblance. Hit me with it" Fade said. I don't know whether he meant literally or not, but I thought he meant 'punch me with shadows'. So I did. I made a fist and launched it at him.

Nothing happened.

"What?" I looked around, searching for any sign of damage

"I guess we found your weakness" Fade said, turning off the torch in his hand "Light cancels out your semblance"

"I knew that people could see me If they shone a light at me, but I didn't know it could prevent me from using solid shadows…"

"Well, that's one more thing we don't want the Wolves to find out" Fade said, sheathing his blade

()

Damn, my arm hurt. How many kicks could that old man do? I walked back to my apartment. Wow, my apartment. I hadn't been _here_ for a while. A familiar sight greeted me.

"Great, Fen, you're back" Rowen was sat on the sofa with a beer "sit down, I'll tell you what Crypt was on about earlier" I sat down, then noticed Iris and Eden.

"Hey" Iris was sat in one of my prize recliners, an expensive one I'd stolen from posh mansion.

"What're you two doing here, what're you doing on my recliner?" I asked

"Where else are we supposed to go? Nice place by the way" Eden was sat on another recliner

"Where's CUBE?" I asked, grabbing a drink from the fridge

"They're staying with Hood" Iris replied

"The boss? Well then…" I nodded and turned to Rowen "What were you going to say?"

Rowen turned pale "Well, you know when we were on that first mission? And I deflected that Nevermore feather?"

"Yeah, dude, what's wrong?" I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder

"I didn't deflect the feather… at first anyway…" He continued

"What'd you mean at first?" I said, not following

He looked up, a tear falling from his left eye "I didn't deflect it, you died. It killed you…"

"What? Fen's still here? What are you talking about?" Iris stood up and walked over

"It happened twice… the first time you died, the second time I deflected it…" he ran one hand through his hair while wiping his eyes.

"How come none of us saw it?" Eden asked

"Because" A man stood at the door "Rowen, you altered time"

Rowen Jikan

I was still trying to express what I'd seen in the forest, but they didn't seem to understand. Then some guy came up to the door, and explained it with three words.

"You altered time" The man was stood in the doorway. He looked kind of old, maybe forty. His kind face was stretched into a smile, a reassuring smile, a familiar smile. He wore a black shirt under a white jacket, and white jeans. He wore a white beanie on his head, from which his hair, and two animal ears poked out. . His hair was dark and wild like Fen's, but with Bright white streaks like a badger. His yellow eyes seemed to light up the room.

"Who are you? One of the Merry Boys?" Iris asked. The man laughed

"No, not for a long time" He looked at me and Fen

"My name, is Connie Kuro. The boys' father" He said, walking over to the sofa. I felt my mouth drop open, and saw Fen's expression change from happiness, to confusion, to happiness again.

"Wait, when you said the boys', did you mean…" Eden began. I looked into his eyes. Connie nodded.

"Dad?" I muttered, then looked at Fen. I can't believe I hadn't noticed before. We both had the same build. We both had the same eyes. "HOLY SH…"


	14. Chapter 14

p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"strongspan style="text-decoration: underline;"Chapter 14: Pocket watch/span/strong/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"A career I spent in the wolves. Three created them. I'll make sure those same three same people correct it. Two are already here. The last one is coming./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"()/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Fen Kuro/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"Well then. That was an eventful day. I got attacked by thieves. Discovered my father was a legendary thief. Then discovered I had a brother, who turned out to be…/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Rowen? You're a time traveller, emand/em my brother?" I stared at him, then at Dad, who nodded./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""AWESOME!" I high fived him and initiated a group hug, which Iris and Eden joined in to. It ended after about a minute./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""So, Dad…" Rowen began/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Don't ask for a car…" he muttered under his breath/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""What were you saying about altering time?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Oh, yeah. You have a time semblance right? You can reverse time for limited periods per day"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""How long?" Rowen asked, Bright eyed/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""1 minute" Dad said. Everyone went quiet/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""That kinda sucks, why only 1 minute?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""You passed out the first time you did it right? With a headache?" Rowen nodded "Imagine the pain of that headache getting worse with every minute, until you can't stop turning back time. And the pain lasting forever" Rowen turned pale once again. He took an old fashioned pocket watch out of his pocket "You can use this to determine how long you can use your power"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Well then, that was cheerful. Hey kids! Don't time travel too much or you'll end up in eternal torture!" I said, trying to lighten the mood "Why're you here anyway?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Well, I was asked by Crypt to help you beat The Forsaken wolves" He said, sitting down next to me./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Not to be rude, but how can you help?" Eden asked. Dad scowled at her./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""I have my ways…" He opened his jacket to reveal an army's worth of blades, from knives, to small machetes, I think I spotted a few of Eugene's spikes in there too. "There's more on the other side" His eyes sparkled menacingly. The girl's jaws dropped./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Those spikes… are they…" I began/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Your hedgehog friend is very… pointy" He said, closing his jacket "Anyway, I'm here to teach you some stealth techniques. Fen, you obviously don't need them, but the rest of you…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Ah, good, the band's back together…" Hood had appeared at the door with Fade and The Mister/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Vaughn, Crypt, how you doing?" The Mister's face twitched as Dad said his name, but he didn't respond to it as he did to others/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Connor, good to see you" the Mister held out his hand/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Don't call me that" He replied, smiling anyway. Hey! I do that too!/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""How's the eyes Vaughn?" He asked/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Still blind" Fade replied, smiling and tilting his glasses before the pair started laughing/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Good to see you" Dad said, finally ceasing his laughter. His face went suddenly serious "What's the plan then?" Everyone looked at The Mister, who smiled/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Glad you asked" He "I'll need all of us to walk together, including that other team of yours, they should be here soon"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Connie Kuro/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Alright, listen up. We'll be split into several teams. Each team will have a job, and if they don't succeed, we will all die" Crypt said, my plans sprawled over a table "Firstly, we'll need a team to take out the assassins, that will be team FIRE and Connor. You need to sneak into the assassins' lair and silence Fenrir before he sees you. To make sure that runs smoothly, we'll need a team to distract the thugs, which will be Vaughn and Team CUBE. You have to get outside their base and cause as much trouble as possible, for as long as possible, find us all a good window. I'll go with Hood, John, Scar and Don to try and take down Romulus. And the last team will help us take out the final squad, Hyde and his hunting pack."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""The last team? There's not enough of us here, we need five more people!" Tucker yelled "There's not enough of our boys to help!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Maybe we could help?" Four people walked in. The first was tall, with a bowler hat and cane, the second was slightly shorter, with grey hair. The third was dark skinned and green haired. The fourth had black hair and eyes that glowed like fire./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""You owe us kid, those missing weapons won't pay for themselves will they?" I recognised the tall one from the news, Roman Torchwick./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Cinder? Why are you guys here?" Rowen asked, excitedly/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""You're friend here said you needed help, so we came" Cinder said, gesturing to Crypt/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""That explains why you're here, why's Mercury and Emerald here?" Fen asked/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""He said there was money involved" Mercury pointed out/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""And dust, which we need at the moment" Emerald explained/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""As I was saying, the final team, that's you, will help with Hyde's men, and give us an exit strategy" Crypt finished/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Exit strategy?" Benny asked "I don't see an exit strategy" As if an answer to his question, a girl with pink and brown hair popped into the room in a white flash and bowed. Benny's eyes went wide "Well then. Found it. Umbrella travel it is."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Hey Neo" Rowen said, laughing at Benny. She smiled back at him./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Good, good, get some rest, we'll need it" Crypt walked to the door. "Goodnight" he smiled as his face twitched a little./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"span style="text-decoration: underline;"Fen Kuro/span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"Everyone was asleep. I wasn't. I couldn't. How could I? An angry pack of trained killers wanted to kill us, just because of me and a stupid sword. It was technically Fade's fault, but I had a feeling it was deeper than that, the blame couldn't be passed to anyone, since I still didn't know the full story. So, I just sat there, blaming myself./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Hey" I turned around/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""What are you doing up?" I asked Iris/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Couldn't sleep, there's too much to think about" She sat down next to me/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Me too" I muttered, staring out of the window, into the darkness. Iris turned to look at me./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""It's not your fault you know" she said quietly/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Huh?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""All this, the Wolves, it's not your fault" she put her hand on my shoulder/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""Yeah, it is!" I stood up "I was stupid, you wouldn't be in this mess, no-one would, not Rowen, Eden or any of CUBE, if I hadn't of gone into Vale today!" I sat back down, put my head in my hands./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""You didn't know that, we could've been attacked by them to get to you! If you hadn't been there, if you'd stayed in Beacon, there's no telling what would have happened to us all" She leaned against my shoulder and leant close to my ear, then whispered "I thought it was brave" she stood up, and began to walk away "Get some sleep OK? We're going to need you tomorrow"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;""You don't need me, you're brilliant on your own" I muttered/p 


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Showdown**

We're all ready, this is my final entry. Dear reader, if we fail, ensure that you stop whoever remains. If this message reaches the right person, know that your family is strong, but you need to keep them safe, and know that you were the one I trusted with this. Goodbye old Friend.

()

Crypt Okami

It ends here. The great legacy of the Mister. Of Crypt Okami. We can't delay it any longer can we?

 _No, I guess not_

I'll need all of my strength to finish this, ALL of my strength

 _Hey, I'm part of you, we aren't going down easy_

But we _are_ going down. I put down the pen, put the letter in an envelope and picked up my Morning Star. The final chapter, let's make it a good one.

Fen Kuro

I woke up. For a minute I forgot what happened yesterday. One blissful moment of ignorance. Then I saw my sword and remembered. Today was the day, we're going to take on the Wolves. I got up and dressed, then walked into the other room. It was still dark, but I could see fine. I'm still not sure whether my sight was affected by my semblance, or my race. Rowen was still in his room. Eden was face down in a pillow on the sofa. Iris was asleep in my favourite recliner under a blanket. I smiled, and walked outside to lean on the fence.

"Huh, guess it runs in the family" I looked behind me, where Dad was leant against the wall. "The night just, calms me down, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that" I muttered, gazing at the grand tree, where team CUBE were staying with Hood. I remembered how I'd gotten everyone into this mess. A tear rolled down my cheek.

"Fen" He walked over and put an arm round my shoulders "It wasn't you. You aren't the one who's trying to kill everyone…"

"That doesn't matter, I'm still a bad person! I'm a liar and a thief…" I gasped

"Yeah, and a good one too" He turned me to look at him "Listen, even if it was your fault, you can't just, give up! You're a leader! A good one too." He wiped the tear from my face "Look, Life, is time. And time, keeps moving forward. You're never going to be in the same place you were yesterday. That's just not how it is…"

"…Because it's a new day. A new day in your life. You have to choose what happens with it" The Mister stood in the doorway "Your father's a smart man Fen, where did you hear that quote?"

"You could say I got it from the Sky…" Dad said, lost in thought for a moment "…Now, better wake up your friends, it's time for training before we go fighting anyone"

()

It was all ready. Everyone was up to speed on the Wolves' patrols, weaknesses and strengths. We were all given black combat gear, and silencers for any of us who had firearms. I still had everyone cloaked in darkness though, just to be sure.

"Alright, FIRE's in position" I said into my headset

"CUBE are all set" I heard Cho say

"Yeah, yeah, we're here" Roman snapped

"Good, we're all set" the Mister reported

"Obviously! That what we just said!" Benny yelled

"Eugene, tell them what they need to do" The Mister continued

"Ok guys, you see any large boxes back there?" Eugene asked

"Yeah, one, big and yellow" Iris stated

"Good, you have two options, one, blow it up, which we can't do, otherwise you need to find some way to electrify… or just do that, that's fine" He said. I'd just thrown Storm right at the box.

"Moving in" I said, moving with the group, cloaking us in shadow. There was one guard on patrol outside, who was checking the box.

"Come on, stupid thing…" The guard muttered. I picked up Storm.

"Found your problem" I whispered, and Rowen smashed him over the head with his wand. I grabbed his keys and went inside. It was dark. Good. The room ahead was full of guards.

"Team 2, start the distraction" I whispered

"Wow, your voice _does_ go low when you use your semblance" Cho commented. I heard an explosion and the guards went to check. Three were left in the room. Dad threw various knives, as Rowen clubbed one with his staff, Iris knocked out another with the end of her Trident and I pummelled the last with shadows.

"Boys? I heard an explosion?" I heard Fenrir say as he walked into the room

"Let me handle this" Dad said, he crept up behind Fenrir "Hellion" he whispered

"AGH!" Fenrir cried

"You deceived us…" He whispered, silently keeping behind him

"Kuro? You're dead!" Fenrir was panicking, he dropped his weapons in fright. Dad opened his jacket and impaled him with a dagger.

"Should've checked that yourself" he said, picking up his knife

"Assassin down" I said

"Right, we got these guys for a while longer, take care of the other guards" Cho reported

"We'll finish the brothers, don't you worry. We all have a score to settle with these lads" Hood said

Eugene Wade

Explosive semblance. Anything I don't like, I just concentrate and… Boom, pile of rubble. Good for distractions. Fifteen guards ran out of the building, armed to the teeth.

"Alright then, there's a few of you" Cho said calmly "BENNY, NOW!" Benny lifted his hands, and used his element semblance (That's periodic, not Fire, air, water, earth) to tear the wall down on top of them.

"That all of you?" Benny asked, panting. 10 more guards appeared "Damn it, every time" he extended his halberd, Cho grabbed her baseball bat, Umar readied his hammers, I… stood there? I can't exactly use weapons very well. I threw a few spikes at them, but that did nothing. Fine, let's play dirty. I ran at them, they were about to just shoot me when I blasted them into the wall. Two more turned, surprise on their faces. Boom! They flew back in a cloud of ash. Several more flew through the air thanks to Umar. Cho was flipping and cartwheeling her way around guards who had no idea what was happening. Benny was sniping from cover. Fade was cutting down men blindly. It was basically over for the Wolves.

Then Hyde arrived. A towering monster. His blonde hair coated with dirt. Chains slid out of his sleeves.

"Team 4! NOW!" Cho yelled

The Mister

"Romulus, you can't expect to win" The arrogant brat was sat in his chair, smiling at us

"You obviously haven't met Hyde…" He said confidently. Hood punched him in the face, blood ran from his nose

"We've already killed Fenrir and captured your brother, Hyde can't save you!" Hood yelled

"Glass…" Romulus muttered

"What? Speak sense damn it Hanto!"

"Glass… half full" He smiled crazily

 _He's beyond help…_

"Finally, something we can agree on!" I grabbed my Morning Star and clubbed Romulus round the head. He hit the wall and was still.

"What was that?" Scar asked

"Never you mind, Hyde will be here soon. We better get to the front to help" I said

"Hehe, Run and Hyde Mister, Hyde doesn't fear death…" Romulus muttered hysterically

"Yeah? Well, neither do I little man" I said, a strange feeling coming over me "You better shut up before I make you"

"Hehe…" I threw him to the wall

"Let's hope Hyde knows when to shut up…" I muttered, hatred running through me

Well, you would be angry wouldn't you? You always are…

 _Be quiet, It's my time for revenge now…_

Fen Kuro

"Get out here everyone! He's got a lot of guys!" Cho yelled through the headset

"Let's go, stay close" I said, running back outside. It was carnage, explosions everywhere, dust rounds ricocheting off walls, chains flying everywhere. I didn't realise what the last one was all about until I saw Hyde. He was surrounded by team 4 and an unconscious team CUBE. Team 4 looked like they were about to be beaten as well. We ran into the fray, cutting and slicing everywhere, blades flying into enemies from Dad, Rowen darting through enemies, Iris and Eden fighting back to back.

"Relax, we have a plan, Eugene, you ready?" The Mister yelled through the headset

"Yeah, everyone in cover?" Eugene asked, I scrambled to encase my team in a shadow shield, Benny had already surrounded team CUBE and team 4 in a stone barrier.

"DO IT!" Roman yelled. Eugene walked out into the centre of the battlefield, in front of Hyde.

"Hello there. You come to surrender?" Hyde taunted, a cocky smile on his face. Eugene smiled back as his red eyes glowed. Hyde's smile disappeared. He grabbed Eugene by the collar, about to strike. The last thing I saw was The Mister tackling Hyde, causing him to drop Eugene, before Eugene caused everything to explode. The area he had been standing in was encased in a blinding flash of light that blew a scorched crater into the ground.

()

By the time the smoke had cleared, Cinder, Roman, Mercury and Emerald had cleared out the wolves' valuables and split it with the Merry Boys, before leaving. Fade had gone with CUBE back to Beacon, and Dad was saying goodbye.

"Where are you going?" Rowen asked

"I'll stay with the Merry Boys for a bit. I can't exactly visit you in Beacon, I am a wanted thief you know" He said, smiling

"We'll visit you whenever we can" I said, he pulled us into a hug

"Goodbye then boys" he said, walking off

"Bye…" I muttered, waving until he was out of sight

"Well then, I'd say that went pretty well" Rowen remarked. We assumed the explosion had taken out Hyde and The Mister, since neither of them were in cover when Eugene used his semblance to blow everything up.

"Yeah, what now?" Eden asked

"I guess, we go back to Beacon" I said, walking off in the direction of the school. Everyone followed

"We're going to cause quite a scene when we get back, I mean, have you _seen_ our clothes?" Iris pointed out

"Eh, I'm used to it" I said. I felt a hand hold mine. I looked over at Iris, who smiled.

"Same here bro" Rowen said "I can say that now right? We are _actually_ brothers?"

"Yeah, I guess so" I said "What are we going to say when we get back?"

"I vote we say: Yeah, we took down the second most dangerous organisation of all time with team CUBE" Eden said "It was pretty cool"

"I don't think anyone would believe us…" I muttered as the sun rose in front of us

()

"Do you have _any_ idea what you have just done?" Goodwitch was lecturing us again. We were sat in Ozpin's office with team CUBE and Fade, who apparently applied for a job here.

"Took down an organisation famed for murder and theft? Was that it?" Benny asked

"Yeah, pretty sure that was it" Eden confirmed

"YOU BLEW A CRATER IN DOWNTOWN VALE!" Goodwitch yelled

"Actually, that was Eugene" Umar said, patting Eugene on the back

"I DON'T CARE! THAT WAS RECKLESS AND DANGEROUS!" she yelled back

"Whoa, calm down professor, it was for a good cause…" I said

"You allowed two _other_ criminal gangs to take everything the wolves had!" she continued to yell

"Hey, it's not like they were theirs in the first place…" I muttered

"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?" I was about to raise my hand. But Fade beat me to it

"It was mine" He said calmly

"What? Oh, well then" she looked around awkwardly "You eight can leave I guess…"

()

"That was awesome! We saw it all on the news!" A blonde haired girl said to Rowen

"It was nothing! Didn't your sister do something like that?" Rowen asked her

"I guess so, it was something to do with the white fang… But yours was _way_ cooler" She said. I walked up to them with Iris.

"Hey Rowen, and…" I looked at the girl

"Yang" She said

"Ah, team RWBY wasn't it?" Iris asked

"Yeah. My sister Ruby is leader!" She said proudly

"Oh… Scythe girl…" I muttered

"Anyway, see you!" iris said, and we walked off.

"I think he likes that girl" I commented "How come we've never met her?"

"We missed a few days of school remember? And anyway, most second years don't talk to first years" Iris said. I looked around the hall and tried to name as many first years as I could. I recognised Pyrrah Nikos, Yang, her sister Ruby, Weiss Schnee… Not really anyone else. "Ooh, I need to talk to Blake!" Iris pulled me towards a dark haired girl with a bow

"Iris?" She said, surprised

"Hey Blake, I… I'm sorry, I've kinda been avoiding you because of…" Iris muttered herself into silence

"Because of the thing. I know. I wouldn't talk to me either" Blake said, putting her hand to her bow

()

"So…" I muttered, led on my bed

"What happens next?" Eden asked

"If being a Hunter is all about killing Grimm and taking on criminal gangs with exploding hedgehogs, you can count me in" Rowen commented

"Me too" I said

"Rowen" Eden said

"Yeah?"

"Where's your car?"


End file.
